


A Mirror, Broken And Bent

by orphan_account



Category: Yogscast
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Other, Yoglabs AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-08
Updated: 2015-02-08
Packaged: 2018-03-11 03:26:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3312170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nanosounds is simply a new employee at yoglabs, a high-end scientific research facility and arguably the most important organization in all of minecraftia. Using a vast cloning system, they are responsible for any and all respawning. Nano's friend, Lalna, used to be employed there, and now Nano has decided to see what, exactly, Yoglabs does- and saying that she's bitten off more than she can chew is one hell of an understatement.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, I love the smell of a new Yoglabs AU in the morning.

A large and pristine vault door loomed ahead. The door of Yoglabs. This scientific facility was renowned far and wide for their scientific advances and new inventions, but most of all, for their cloning system. They had not only found out extremely effecient ways of creating perfect clones, but also engineered a remarkable system of respawning in beds and preset spawn points alike. It was true technological genius, and the rumors of the expanses of the laboratory running deep underground for all sorts of experimentations and tests and projects were running wild- yet these, not a single person doubted. The company owned the land, had the funding, had the ridiulously intelligent minds, all at their disposal. So much so that it was more than likely the experiments were beyond one's imagination. 

Speaking of imagination, one would think that with such an expansive area to take care of and so many tests and trial runs to be done that they would need an army of plastic-gloved, labcoat-clad individuals, ready to do an experiment at a moment's notice- this was not the case.

Yoglabs, despite it's seemingly massive size, needed very few people to function. Much of the facility was upkept by cleverly programmed robots, or testificates; oh, the testificates. A race of failed clones. They were the product of the first mass-cloning, but ended up being a rather mild people who kept almost always to themselves and rarely complained. They were good workers, and one in three would openly talk to the standard human. So, having nowhere to live and having been born- no, _made_ \- in a laboratory, they were given houses and a workplace. They did most mundane tasks, making sure that machines were up and running, checking if the redstone wiring was all in place, supervising the bots. But the experiments themselves- those were in the hands of the employees.

Yoglabs was living well up to it's legend, a massive building. Though you wouldn't be able to tell from the outside, it was huge. The door didn't open- it was simply for show. However, it scaled up to size quite well, seeing as it covered a few floors and wings. Just a few. The hallways and branches and rooms and levels and maintainance hatches bled through the stone and soil of the earth it was built into, pooling up in places to create cells and reactor chambers and holosuites. There was so much to the place, and if asked, many employees would say that it never really ended. The scientific breakthroughs and occasional embedded magic meant that there was simply an almor infinite amount of possibilities, things to explore and to explain, and the goal of Yoglabs was to do all of it.

This, of course, was considered by many to be impossible. Yoglabs had a rulebook, but their motto and biggest rule was as follows: 'Impossible is a relative term.'


	2. A fitting day for a funeral.

Nanosounds was crying.

The walls of her apartment shone brass in the sunlight, the rays filtering in through the cracks of the wooden shades. The unfolded layers of birch allowed for stripes of the wall to almost glow in the light of the day's hot summer sun, though it was nothing conpared to the orange evening glow that radiated from the glass double-doors that led to the balcony of the penthouse.

The view from over the stone half-wall was astonishing- and Nano often found herself wondering how the man whom she had so admired- from his tousled hair to his scuffed boots- managed to afford it. But of course, the question never left her mouth, as it was answered the split second it came to her thoughts. Yoglabs.

The facility was so much more than well-funded that it wasn't even funny. They studied everything, and were rumored to have the world's most chaotically complex coffee contraption. Her closest friend happened to be a long-time friend of the owner, Xephos. Of course, his dumb grin and charasmatic attitude got him into a lot of places, and earned him a lot if valuable connections. The price of the place must have been nothing.

Even the furniture was better than anything that Nanosounds could have collected. Sure, she could definitely afford every last item in the house from the bed to the doorknobs, but the way that everything managed to fit together despite the crazy clash of themes to make it her home could have only been achieved by one man.

Who else would be able to grab whatever looked cool from a garage sale and miraculously make it fit into the aesthetic of the room? Who else but the guy with more colorful shoelaces than any hipster could even dream of?

Thinking back upon all of these fond memories and familiarly odd traits only hurt Nano more. It hurt, remembering him.

A picture of her best friend and her lover of less than a week sat on the coffee table in front of her as wet tears fell from her cheeks. Her eyes were slightly puffy and red, she'd been crying for a while. How had this happened? Why did it have to happen?

Nano and Lalna had been remarkably close friends for over a year. They'd met through an apprenticeship program that the shorter party had decided to sign up for. Lalna was a leading scientist at Yoglabs, and Nano had been training to work there, always ready to jump at an opperitunity when a slot opened up. Well, she had what she wanted. Next to the wooden-framed image lay multiple forms and papers. A new spot was open at Yoglabs, and Nano had reccomemdation from one of their best scientists. She simply hadn't expected to be taking his place.

Lalna was dead. He'd been working with thaumaturgy, trying to mix it with machines and different chemicals and sciences, trying to find how he could remove taint from an individual. From himself. From her. Nano couldn't help but feel guilty for his death. One wrong estimate, a faulty glass flask, a misplaced wand at the wrong time... It was just so _unfair_. 

He shouldn't have died. It should have been somebody else, anybody else. But it was him. It was him, and it was just so, very unfair. Nano sniffed, pulling her head into her hands and catching her breath on all of the. 'What if's and things that could have saved him. Several choking sobs later, her tears stopped. Her body didn't have the energy and water to keep up with her weighted emotions. Carefully removing the dual clips that held her hair in place, the woman sighed, and stood up to walk into the bathroom.

The house simply seemed empty now, without him to talk to. The constant noise that used to accomodate the home was gone, replaced by an unfamiliar silence. One of them was almost always talking, joking, laughing, but no longer. Now it was just empty. Hollow. Dim. No amount of light or warmth could change that. He wasn't there anymore, and that punched a massive hole in her life.

Nano looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink. She saw herself and cursed under her breath. She was _better_ than this. She'd been alone before. She still had happiness to spend and a life worth living. But somehow, it didn't matter. That crazy man had become part of her life now.

Much earlier, a little less than a month after she had began learning under his wing, he showed her the flux sphere. It was a glass orb, filled with seemingly nothing, in one of the less secretive wings of the labs. The two had been peering down from a hole in the slightly flattened top when he slipped. While he righted his balance, he'd accidentily pushed hus apprentice into the hole, his eyes snapping wide open when she yelped in surprise. Lalna had called security immediately, and Nano had seemed fine.

The two of them clicked together so well that Nano ended up moving in with Lalna, and they were like two parts of the same machine. Their friendship helped the both of them become better people. A week after the incident, her right hand was notably tinged with purple. A month after that, the spiraling purple color was up to her elbow, and in a short four and a half months after the accident had happened, almost all of her right arm was covered in flux, as well as part of her face and her left hand. Both of them were worried, but other than changing her skin color, it seemed to do nothing. However, she started to have dreams. Dreams about mother. Mother was so very nice, so comforting. Mother promised to help her, told her that everything would work out, whispered secrets and songs to her, and spoke in languages undescribable by human speech. Nano told Lalna about mother, and he was visibly unhappy. 

Five months after the accident. Lalna's hands and wrists were tinted with the frighteningly familiar purple that now dominated his friend's features. It coupd spread. It had to stop. Eight months from the original accident, Nano went blind in her right eye, and Lalna's forearms were covered. The flux stayed seemingly dormant for a while, and Nano was biding her time until a job at yoglabs was available.

A year of apprenticeship had came and went, and both of them were questioning where they stood in the relationship. Thirteen months after Nano and Lalna had first started working together, they announced that they were an item. Nobody was surprised. Then, six days after finally unbottling her emotions, he died.

He _died_.

Nanosounds cried out, hitting the wall. More tears forced themselves out, trailing down her cheeks like a pebble rolling down a hill. Nano sobbed. Her best friend- her boyfriend- was gone.

 

 

Three weeks after he died, there was a funeral. The gathering was relatively small, consisting of some of Lalna's close friends and remaining family. This was only his sister. Noone knew the woman quite well, and she was relatively silent during the good majority of the funeral, aside from when she went up to speak for her lost brother. Most of Lalna's closer friends were from work. Lomadia and Xephos stood by the grave, the both of them standing still as statues as they watched the oaken casket get lowered down into the hole. The woman's blonde hair flew in the harsh wind, thrashing towards the south. Her blue eyes were a storm, that seemed to be of two conflicting sides. The gray of grief fought the sad sapphire blue that mourned the loss of a friend, but her resolve would never show it. Together, they formed the constant fierceness that lingered in the woman's gaze, always the watchful guardian. Xephos, in contrast, was rather serene. He seemed more... At peace. His sorrow for his lost friend was clear in his frown, but his eyes told the story of happiness that the blond man had shown in life. Coming from a dwarven family, Honeydew had voulenteered to dig the grave. It was a tradition among his people, he had said. He was beside the grave, entirely still aside from a low hum of an ancient song. It was more comforting than not. The dwarf's beard stiffly rustled with the wind, but never left the broad, squared shoulders that framed him. Zoeya, a technical programmer and a talented translator, stood with two other figures. While the redhead herself was crying silently, the slightly taller figure beside her showed almost no emotion. Rythian, the head manager of any and all magical experiments that occured at yoglabs. He was one of Zoey's closer friends, and she one of his. Though the gossip of his rivalry with Lalna was quite true, he was there out of a deep respect, as his cold eyes surveyed the scene. The other figure was Fiona Saberial, lead security officer and Zoey's girlfriend. She stood solemnly by the other two, silent as the wooden deathbed took it's place at the bottom of the hole. Her curled brown hair tousled with the gales, standing with her hands clasped behind her back.

There was a silence that fell over all that were present, a silence of grief and respect. A silence feuled by anger of death's draw of cards that had chosen Lalna. By a sorrow of the laughs and smiles the goofy man delivered. By empathy for the silently shaking girl who stood at the foot of the grave. 

Nano hadn't stayed for the vigil. She wouldn't. Her brain was wracked with hurt and loss and sorrow enough, and staying would only have broken what little was left of her.

Nano cried a lot that day. She cried a lot, and she couldn't help it. Her friend, her lover, her light, her warmth- he was gone. He was gone, and no amount of mad science or forbidden magic could bring him back.


	3. Be my Valentine (Please)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentines day, everybody.

Rythian was, by no means, an emotional man. Or, at least, not the kind who would express or share their feelings. He believed it showed weakness. That putting your feelings out on display like dresses behind a parlor window allowed people the ability to break the window itself. To get into your head, and use the emotions against you. No, emotions were not weakness- but letting others see them was one. It was a _liability_. But, here he was, almost the damsel in distress- Yogtowers, a dormitory-like, above-ground extension of Yoglabs, was where many of the higher ranking employees lived- overlooked the vast amount of empty 'prarieland' owned to cover up the locations. Though it was a well-known organization with a very wide and positive reputation, the facility's location was a secret.

 

Like with many other things, Rythian was alone. He sat, head hung in his hands, elbows resting on his parted knees, and legs dangling off of the side of his bed, gazing at the floor with a longing that glazed over his eyes.

 

He remembered last Valentines day. She was happy, smiling, eyes bright- though, when was she not? She carried an air, an aura, or happiness around with her wherever she went, the opposite of the brooding and foreboding stormcloud that he was. She was a warm and welcoming ray of sunlight in his otherwise dark world. He had so many secrets, so many burdens that he kept from her- and yet, despite her knowledge of their existence, she stayed. He could be anything, lie about so much, and she would stay. She would _smile_. And, though his scarf would never let her see, he would smile back. Her bright white grin, her bubbling and happy laughter, the radiant glow of kindness- it was infectious. She would never walk past a sad or crying face. She would always be the first to ask 'are you okay?', the first to offer her hand to a person who fell, and always found the bright side, even was there seemed to be nothing but a consuming loneliness.

 

Rythian, for the first time, almost, had happiness in his life- and it was her. Employed at Yoglabs for so long, every day the same routine, he was lost. Day in and day out, it was the same, check in, check the experiments, lunch break, check more tests, report, organize experiments, check out... it wasn't boring or tiring, per se, but it wasn't living in the way everyone else did. It was just... breathing. Walking, talking, it just wasn't enough. Every day may have different happenings, he may have different conversations, have friends, but it all just felt pointless. It felt empty. He walked through a void, a void with a few moons, a few anchors that were his friends and support and those he idly talked to and gave him chunks of their own support. There were stars, but they were distant, small specks of light that could only supply so much warmth.

 

However, one day, he met one of the newly hired employees- a technician. Of course, he preferred magic to an extreme extent. Science had caused too many casualties in the labs- workers had been permanently disabled, and a rare few had even _died._ But she... she was different. She worked with and programmed software and hardware, managed the near-vital systems of the building, and all of this burdensome responsibility bounced off of her like nothing. She stood in the battlefield of stress and took no blows- she caught them. She re-purposed that emotion. She always joked about being the embodiment of rainbows and smiles and happiness, but to everyone else, it was anything but a joke.

 

She was his sun. So much light and warmth had lit up his void that day, and he started to enjoy life. He learned how to make his friends shine brighter, and himself. It grew and grew and grew, and it balled up inside of Rythian- but that emptiness that haunted him, that swirled around his mind, that fueled the void and kept it in his life, it told him to keep it. It kept the emotions in the storeroom that was insecurity, away from the display windows. Then it changed.

 

His sun darkened.

 

It remained there, but the star so bright before was dampened. Not by her, but by him. He waited too long, but perhaps it wouldn't have even mattered. Perhaps nothing really did. The void grew back in many places, but he stayed. He still had light, had warmth. But she simply had more.

 

She had Fiona. His sun was still bright, and still burned. It was all okay. She was okay. She was happy.

Scattered around the room the masked man sat in were peices of paper, words scribbled out and paper crickled and ripped. The only remaining letter was one held by the man. He taped a picture to it that he'd printed out- from before. When he still had his sun- _his_ sun, and when he was hers. Rythian stood with her, his eyes showing the smile that hid behind the scarf, and her beside him, her smile never fading from her face. The heart-shaped cutout of pink construction paper (She had always loved the cheesy romantic gags, anyways) read as follows: _"Be my Valentine"_

The 'me' it Valentine, however, was slightly smudged as a tear rolled from the corner of his eye and down his nose, before finally falling victim to gravity and splashing onto the paper. 

"Zoey..." He whispered, "please."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so maybe it wasn't all that happy...


	4. Give Smiling A Chance Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nano has her first day of work at Yoglabs.

Here it was- Nano’s first official day of work- and the overcast sky seemed to disapprove of her faux bright mood. She was tired, but not because she was losing sleep (If anything, she was getting too much.), but because she was stressed to all hell. A result of everything that was weighing down on her, crashing onto her shoulders all at once, her mental and emotional strength not enough to support the worries that only seemed to keep coming. Not only was she still not coming to terms with Lalna’s death, but everything, _every little thing_ , from that split end in the lock of hair just in the corner of her vision to the fact that the television remote was on the wrong side of the table- hurt more than it should have.

It’s not like she didn’t realize it. Nanosounds knew she shouldn't stress herself out for petty things, but that wasn't the point. That's not how mourning worked. She stood by the massive iron vault that was Yoglabs, then almost tried knocking on it when a smaller door opened, just below and to the right of the wheel crank, revealing a kind-looking face and a well-worn green tie.

"Hello, there!" He said. The man's smile and openly casual stance was inviting, and Nano only just caught herself before she smiled. She couldn't do that, she couldn't smile at Lalna's death. She felt like she should be sad. She didn't want to be, but cheering up so soon, so quickly, just felt wrong. She’d tried to analyze it, but never came up with a straight answer as to why she wanted to feel more alone than she needed to be. She couldn’t explain it to herself or others. “...Ah, miss? Hello?” He asked in a thick accent. Nano blinked a couple times, eyebrows slightly furrowed.

“Oh!” The quick realization that she’d been spaced out finally dawned on her. “Right, yeah, hello.” She reached behind her head, rubbing the back of her sore neck. “I’m Nanosounds. I work here. Well, I’m going to start working here, today- but I guess that means I work here?” She sighed heavily, straightening her back more and standing at her full (And still considerably short) height.

The man replied after a few moments of his mouth being frozen in an oval. “Right! Right, right, ‘course- just a moment.” His face disappeared behind the frame, but a few clicks and mechanical sounds later, he popped his head back around the corner, Nano still waiting in the threshold. “Okay, I’ve put your arrival into the computer. You can wait inside until your schedule gets down.” Nodding, the woman stepped inside, and an unexpected waiting area sat before her. It was surprisingly lounge-like, and the regularly white marble walls that bent a U-shape around the secretary’s desk like a ticket booth, were turned silver with a slight sort of chrome, though it seemed dulled over the years. The beige carpeting underfoot contrasted nicely with the dark wood that framed the chairs and tables lining the walls.

Nano sat down across from the desk, watching the woman at the desk type at a speed Nano herself couldn’t imagine of doing. The secretary looked like she had just walked through a pastel rainbow, with her hair graduating from blonde to a dusty pink, and a warm smile was plastered on her face, and for once Nano let herself smile. It was only a faint curve, but the grins in this place seemed infectious and welcoming. Her eye catching a flash of red to the right of the woman, towards the end of the 'U' Nano hadn't arrived through. Peeking her head slightly around the corner pillar of the desk that supported the roof above, and a man in a very formal pinstriped black vest and red undershirt sat on the second to last chair next to the door. He looked a bit nervous, but mostly held his composure, and despite the fact he looked uncomfortable in his place, he seemed pretty confident about what he was doing. Like he didn't want to be in the environment, but had an obligation. Curiously, Nano started to stand up, breathing in. Despite her feelings and everything she was going through, she had to talk. Lomadia was never really around, busy as she was, but she and Nano were friends, and they tended to send each other text messages quite often. Lom may be busy, but she suggested talking to somebody, meeting new people, make new friends, pick up a hobby, distract yourself. Don't get over it- get through it.

Plopping herself onto the blue cushion of a chair next to the slightly startled-looking blonde man, Nano smiled. "Hello!"

"...Hello?" He replied with a much more animated voice than she had expected, furrowing his eyebrows and crinkling the skin right above the bridge of his nose. He seemed like he hadn't been expecting anyone to approach him, or at least not some random rookie.

"Yeah, um, hi.” Big surprise, it was already getting awkward. “My name’s Nano, I’m kind of sort of new here. I mean, it’s only my first day working here, but you looked like you might need some... help...?” She trailed off towards the end of her sentence as he started to raise an eyebrow towards an expensive looking pair of shades resting above his hairline. Shaking his head, he cleared his expression and assumed a very calm and business-like one in its place as he cleared his throat and straightened his collar.

“Well,” He began, “...Or Will.” He grinned, clearly pleased with himself, but explained his words when he noticed Nano’s confused look. “Will. My name is Will?” Now it was Nano’s turn to raise her eyebrows in question. “Hey, it was funny, okay?” He cleared his throat again. “Will Strife. It’s my first day working here too, actually.” He shrugged.

“Really?” Nano’s face had visibly brightened. “Cool. I mean, it’s a pretty difficult job to get, I’d imagine you had to prepare a lot of stuff and talk to a lot of people to get here.”

Crossing his arms, Will replied “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t- did you?”

Stammering slightly, Nano choked out “My- my boyfriend got me this job.” It was certainly an understated way to put it, but it certainly wasn’t a lie. However, to her surprise, saying it didn’t hurt. Well, not nearly as much as it would have been a day or two before.

Will started to say something, mouth half open, when a loud pinging noise of skin on metal interrupted him.

“Hello, newbs! Well, newbies, but that’s not nearly half as funny, is it?” The brunet who had practically slid into the room from the tiled floor of the hall ushered the two of them up, then walked right back into the hall, turned so he could see where he was going while being able to easily look back at the two new recruits.

Side-glancing at Will as they rushed to keep up with the man, Nano mouthed an over pronounced ‘What?’ to him as the man continued rambling. “S’pose I should probably introduce myself first, yeah? My name’s Turps, but you can call me Turps, or alternatively ‘The T’. I’m the guy who manages a whole lot of copyright and government bullshit, and also the guy who can get you fired if you’re not doing their job. Now, you guys are getting your list of experiments that you are to take care of. They’ve all got special stuff that you need to keep an eye on, so be _veeery_ careful to not get ‘em mixed up, else you’ll be in serious shit with them. Now, normally I would give you the grand tour, but I’ve got my own shit to do right now so once I get you to Sjin, you’re on your own. Capishe?”

Head swimming with the flood of information that had just been rattled off by Turps combined with all the fleeting glances through glass window on the way- a foreboding door with a red eye painted onto it, a room entirely black save for some fireflies floating around, a laboratory with testificates trying to tranquilize a massive zombie-like monster- Nano had difficulty processing it all. She had seen only very small parts of yoglabs, two or three rooms dedicated to specific things, as well as a few lobbies and boring halls lined with benches and potted plants. The strangest thing about her previous experiences here, next to the flux sphere, was all of the scrubber-bots wandering around. She nodded excessively at everything that Turps was saying, and she almost ran into his back when he stopped; whether it was because of his sudden halt or because her mind was preoccupied was unclear.

"Here we are, kids!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms open in a grandiose gesture to the room that, frankly, looked like something that became of an urban and country chic train crashing into a mountain. 

"We're actually about the same a-" Will had started to say, when Turps cut him off for a second time by holding up his hand and spinning around to face them.

"No time for that, sorry! Nice to meet you guys! Good luck!" And with another careless grin and hurried pivot in the direction of another corridor, the 'T' was off, leaving the two rookies in the office that was really more of a lounge.

The walls were a polished oak wood, and the roof held itself at two levels, the center strip only about a foot and a half taller than the flats on its sides, for the sole purpose of making it look better. Six pillars supported the inner edge of the shorter roof, three on each side of the muddy brown carpet that lead to a fireplace. The hearth stood two feet from a lengthy ovular rug and a low coffee table with a glass top and birch framing. A few leather armchairs dotted the table, and looking behind her, Nano could see the shelves and cabinets and display cases that lines the walls on the long sides of the room. She almost didn't notice the polite coughing of an approaching man, and as she startled and turned to face him, she noticed that Will had the same expression of appreciation for the room.

The man who had just approached- Sjin, if Turps' brief mention was anything to go by- had a slightly rural and cartoonish look to him. He had the curled-at-the-very-ends moustache of a stereotypical higher classman, and an elf-ish beard. His eyes were bright, full of life and energy, though he managed to keep his body moving pretty smooth and calmly. His beaming expression and demeanor was countered with a scarily in control body language, and just by looking at him, Nano could tell that he looked friendly but could cause trouble.

"So," He began speaking as she made a mental note to stay on his good side, "William Strife and Nanosounds?" He knew who they were immediately, though his neighborliness shined through with the polite confirmation, and the second both Nano and the blond next to her nodded, Sjin was speaking again. "I've got your schedules right here and ready to go. All the information about your rounds are in the fourth column, after the title, experiment allocation, and room number. Your cards have the right clearances to get you where you need to go, and you can check out a map and any memos or information that's been sent to you by swiping it at terminals- don't worry, they're all over the place." Smiling, he handed each of them a neat and orderly card with an ID barcode and a name next to a small, empty circle. "I'm Sjin, by the way. S'apleasure to meet you both."

He held out his hand to Nano, and then Will after she shook it, the same welcoming look remaining present. "So, uh" She said, clearing her throat "you have a very cool looking office." In return, Sjin smiled proudly, looking around with his hands resting on his hips.

"Thank you, I built it myself."

"Wait, what?" Nano raised an eyebrow, looking up at the satisfied, grinning face before her. She wasn't entirely aghast, but it was quite a surprise. "As in, physically? Or built the design of the place?"

With a smug look at her, Sjin replied "Both, actually." And laughed when Nano and Will did a double take. "What? I'm capable. It took me a while, but the lab had the funding taken care of, and I pitched a reasonably crazy idea. Turns out, Xephos likes crazy ideas."

"Wow. Good job, then." Nano said over the brunet's low sniggering. She looked down at her paper, with a four-by-seven grid of subject information written on it.

"Right, then you're off. Use the company messaging platform to shoot a question my way if you have any, alright?" After the small ego boost of his lobby's architecture being complimented, Sjin's smile seemed warmer and more genuine. With a nod of confirmation and a polite wave, Nano set off down the hall. There was a terminal a little ways to her left. As she walked to the touch-sensitive screen embedded in a small alcove in the wall, she thought about the sincerity of the final smile she'd gotten. Building and design were definitely a passion that Sjin enjoyed full-heartedly.

She set her pristine new card in a square indent on the diagonally angled monitor, the screen whirring away from the Yoglabs logo as it read the plastic barcode. The varying shades of stereotypical green technobabble formed a simple layout, and Nano touched the word 'MAP' that was written on a tab near the top of the screen. Getting her bearings, she found where her first new responsibility was held. Retrieving her card, she turned away to the bleeping sound of the machine recognizing the card as no longer being there and reverting back to the logo, and she began to make her way to the green wing and the dimensional door facility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry it took so long, guys, but I'm finally getting this show back on the road again!


	5. Dimensional Dorks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once I realized I could pun the chapter title there was no avoiding it, really.

Left around this corner, down to the end of that hall, pass over to the other hall and a few turns later, Nano arrived at the green wing, following the convenient green line plaster-painted onto the floor. The half-her-height blue trim at the bottom of the walls was cut off by a large black frame to her left, an arch that quite clearly signified the opening of her destination. It was like somebody had helpfully bolded the correct entrance for her to go through.

"So what you’re saying is that somebody disappeared into probably some hellish pocket dimension full of really angry doors - again?”

“Well, yeah, but they were carrying back a bit of a locked door with them, according to the comms team- I could really fucking use that for some research, mate!”

"Well let’s start with you shutting up, because you’re being loud as fuck."

"I can be a hell of a lot louder, if you get what I'm saying."

"Oooh, naughty!" Chimed in a third voice.

"But we can't just... charge in there! And we can't ask for a team, either, because the last four we've 'borrowed' never came back. Personnel trained in inter-dimensional search-and-rescue are hard to swindle Xeph out of, and the three of us aren’t exactly ready to take on a bunch of huge fuck-off monoliths!”

Nano walked towards the bickering voices, not feeling too bad for eavesdropping. Then again, could it really even be considered eavesdropping? After all, the group of them were talking very loudly, and she did work in this department now, so there couldn’t even be too much blame to apply to her. Slowing her breathing pattern and squaring her shoulders, she confidently stepped into the room, where the two arguing parties and the third, more indifferent person were.

They were a very strange trio, on first impressions. The two who were arguing stood at a difference in height, the shorter one wearing what looked like a seal’s skin over a lab coat, comically waving his arms around in wildly over exaggerated gestures. The tall one, meanwhile, was by far the strangest in the room, an abnormal green tone to his skin, which almost seemed to border on transparent, but not unless you stared very hard for a very long time.

The last one was dressed in what looked like an expertly tailored suit, a bright red tie adding color to the near pitch black haired man's ensemble, bright blue eyes very prominent next to the dark, scruffy beard and sideburns that framed his face.

The first one to notice the arrival of the newly shortest person in the group was the continually tallest, with a malicious grin that could have split his face into two. "Oi! You lost? On janitorial? Not that it actually matters. Tell Trott here that he should be more helpful and get a search team, yeah?"

Nano's lips parted, a sentence building in the back of her mouth, when she was cut off yet again. That seemed to be happening a lot today.

"Smith, shut up, this’s gonna be that new employee who's working a shift with us." Said the shorter man, presumably Trott, giving Nano an exhausted, can-you-get-a-load-of-this-guy expression. "Welcome, sorry Smith's such a twat."

The man standing with his back to the rest of the group, focusing on measuring something on the worktable in front of him let out a breathy chuckle.

"Fuck off!" Smith said loudly, a look on his face that quite clearly portrayed how annoyed he was.

"So," Began Trott, walking over and putting one hand on Nano's shoulder and using the other to gesture about the room. "I'm Trottimus, mostly Trott, I do mechanical shit and that. That's Smith- or twat, if you like-"

" _Fuck off!_ "

"-and that's Ross." His arm traveled to direct her eye towards the last of the three. "Just don't shit-talk marble and you'll be fine." He added, quieter than the rest of his little spiel.Two parts confused and one parts intrigued, Nano nodded in understanding. Trott released her shoulder to walk over to talk to Ross about whatever the latter had been excessively drawing and measuring and erasing this whole time.

Walking up to Smith, she extended her hand in greeting. “Smith, then, yeah? I’m Nanosounds.” He took her hand in an unexpectedly professional shake.

“Glad you didn’t call me twat.”

“Oh, sorry, should I try again?”

“Smith!”

Both of them turned to look at Trott, who was waving a ‘come over here’ signal at Smith. The three of them clustered around the worktable, a less heated argument brewing. Nano made out words here and there- ‘build, doors, dumb, quarantine, wing’- but the vague idea given by a small selection of words didn’t help her cause much. 

“Hey, Nano, come over here.” Trott suggested, looking back over his shoulder. Right. Nano thought, mentally hitting herself in the head, I’m supposed to be a part of this too, now. “So,” Said Trott as she drew closer, “Ross wants to see how a door in the same place reacts depending on what it’s built on. Course this is gonna be fuckin’ hard, seeing as that means moving the floor without moving the door. Also, who knows, maybe it’ll turn into a goddamned monolith if you put it on something it doesn’t want to be on.”

“Isn’t that why you try things and experiment, though? To find out what happens?” Nano countered, one arm crossed over her chest, hand in the crook of her other elbow, the fingers on her second hand splayed from her chin and across the right side of her jawbone.

The expression on Trott's face changed to one of utter betrayal. "What?" Nano frowned "I'm only saying my opinion!" Though Ross was behind Trott from where Nano stood, she could see a prideful smirk taking form over a slight chuckle.

"Ah, come on," Smith shrugged, taking a lazy step forwards towards Trott, reaching out a lanky arm to pat the shorter man's shoulder, "lighten up, we've got this in the bag and you know it. We're Hat Films!" At the words that were rather meaningless to Nano, she noticed a spark of motivation in Trott's eyes, a grin playing on his lips.

"Well I guess, but..." Said Trott, stepping up to Smith. "Stop being so _fucking cheesy_." And with that, he used both hands to shove the green man backwards, given not with that all much force.

Laughter erupted among the four of them, varying from low chuckling to lighthearted laughter to mad giggling. Nano and Ross both offered Smith a hand, pulling him back upright (though Ross did most of the work).

The shift progressed smoothly and naturally from there, Nano feeling less at work than at play. Joking and laughing and poking fun at each other proved to pass the time quickly, and by the time Nano waved goodbye and headed off to her second shift, Ross' arms were full of varying materials they were considering using for the test, whilst Trott and Smith painstakingly etched at the metal below the door in attempt to see if the door would object to not having the current material underneath it.

Feeling progressively more positive, Nano set off down the hall, glancing down at her work schedule and walking away feeling light-hearted, silently thanking Lalna for giving her this. Without it, who knows how much longer she could have been lost in her own sadness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, on a scale of 'Never write them again' to 'Ehhhhh', how badly did I screw up writing the sirs properly?


End file.
